Deflating and safety valve for gas-filled balloons



K. F. KAPPES.

DEFLATING AND SAFETY VALVE FOR GAS'FILLED BALLODNS.

\ APPLICATION FILED OCT- 3. I920.

1,408,603. Patented Mar. 7, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

M 7 M Qm ZZ T W K. F. KAPPES. v DEFLATING AND SAFETY VALVE FOR GAS FILLED BALLOONS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 3,1920.

Patented Mar. 7, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

KARL FRIEDRICH KAPPES, OI MANNHEIM, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO LUFTFAHRZEUG- IBAU SCHUTTE-LANZ, OF MANNHEIH-RHEINAU, GERMANY.

DEFLATING AND SAFETY VALVE FOR GAS-FILLED BALLOONS.

Specification of Letters l'atent.

Patented Mar. 7, 1922.

Application filed October 8, 1920. Serial No. 415,646.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, KARL F RIEDRIGH KAPrEs, a citizen of the German Republic, and resident of Mannheim, Germany, have invented a certain new and useful Improved Deflating and Safety Valve for Gas-Filled Balloons, of which the following is a specification.

In the known forms of constructions of valves for gas-filled balloons, as employed in connection with air-ships, the valve-disk is guided by means of a straight-line motion. Pressing the valve-disk against its seat is generally effected in these valves by means of a plurality of springs which are distrib uted around the circumference of the seat. The pulling-device for opening the valve is arranged outside of the balloon-envelope and operates with aid of special guide rolls attached to the valveseat vertically to the direction of motion of the valve-disk.

It has been found that the comparatively great weight of the parts constituting the straight-line motion, the springs and their supporting-parts, and the guide-rolls for the valve-rope. is a drawback in the valves in question. Furthermore, the springs, owing to their unuuiforniity. press ununiformly upon the tightening-surface of the valve whereby on closing this latter jamming of the disk or strong friction in the bearings is caused, so that the secure and tight closing of the valve is rendered dubious. Another drawback consists in the fact that, also owing to the ununiformity of the springs, i. e. of their tensile power, considerable frictional resistances in the straight-line motion arise.

The power necessary for actuating the valve becomes then inadmissibly great, especially with valves having comparatively long wireropes, as is, the case with large air-vessels, so that unusual reinforcements of the Valve and the valve-rope become necessary, whereby anchoring these parts is rendered more difficult.

The before-mentioned drawbacks are overcome by my invention, the gist of which resides in this that the valve-disk is guided by only one lever which has its hearing, or, more precisely bearings, at the annular valve-seat and engages a rigid member se cured to the center part of the valve-disk, whereas a spring which also engages said rigid valve-disk member immediately above the point of connection of the said member,

and the said lever draws the valve-disk against its seat with a pressure that is practically uniform around the whole circumference of the valve. Owing to this arrangement and combination of parts, the valvedisk cannot laterally give way so that the gas leaving the balloon through the opened valve cannot produce oscillatory movements of that disk.

In order to make my invention more clear, I refer to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a vertical section through one form of construction of the improved valve; Figure 2 is a. plan of said valve; Figure 3 is a representation similar to Figure 1 showing a slightly modified form of construction; and Figures 4, 5, and 6, are also such representations and show some more modifications, all of which are described in detail hereinafter.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, a is the cup or basin-shaped valve-disk, to the centrepart of which are secured two rigid memhers I) which are connected with a lever (l and with the lower end of a tensile spring 0. The lever d is supported in bearings e and f upon the valve-seat g, and the spring 0 is held by stays h 71. k which also are supported by the valve-seat g. The lever 03 is a bell-crank lever, and extends through the valve-seat in opposite direction to the valve-disk a. 2' is a lug which is aflixed to the other side of the valve-disk, also in its centre-part, and extends contrarily to the members I); it serves for afiixing the valve-rope (m, Figure 3). ThlS rope may, however, be attached also to the lever-arm d Guiding the valve-disk by the lever d d, in connection with the spring a, affords, thus, the advantage, that the arrangement shown and described may be used for free balloons, the valve-rope of which is passed through the interior of the balloon and which is pulled in the direction of the spring a, as Well as for air-ships where the valve-rope lies 1 outside of the balloons. The friction to be overcome when operating the valve is extremely slight and the central point of engagement of the spring guarantees uniform pressing of the valve-disk against the seatpacking at every point around the circumference of the valve. Moreover, this improved valve excels the known ones by its greater simplicity and lesser'weight.

As but very slight frictional resistances safety valve.

arise in the guide-parts of the valve in question, it may advantageously be employed as Such a form of execution is shown in Fig. 3. In this example the lever (l is but one-armed; the arm d of Figures 1 and 2 is dispensed with. can thus be attached solely to the lug The rope m is, in this instance, but short and 1S connected with spring Z attached to the.

pressure have equalized each other, the valve closes again without any actuation of the valve-ropeproper. The valve in question is, thus, capable of operating as deflating-valve, as well as pressure-equalizingvalve; no special pressure-equalizing valve is necessary, whereby the weight and the costs are db minished.v i

In the, form ofconstruction represented in Figure 4, a locking-devicetor the opened valve-disk is provided. \Vhen opening the valve by pulling the rope (for instance on landing or in the case of tethering of the anchoring-cable), the valve remains open until the, locking-means are actuatedj This may. be effected either by hand or by a special rope-or by another pull'at the same rope. Such forms of construction are shown in Figures 4, 5, and 6, of which the first shows a form, of execution, in which a lockinglever is to be operated by hand in order to allow of the valve closing. i

1 is the locking-lever which is hinged at v 2 to one of the arms is and'is provided with a locking-lug 3 and a locking-hook 4. A spring 5 is. affixed at one end to the lever 1 and at the other end to a bracket ;6.also

afiixed to the respective arm 70. The'spring. 5 presses the vertical lever 1 against a hor1-.

zontal lever 7 which is hinged at 8 to a bracket 9 secured to the other arm it, diametrically opposite to the bracket 6. The

lever or arm 7 is drawnb the s rin Z. t"

against the lug 3 of tl1e-locking-lever 1 and is connected by the piece of rope m with'the lug c of the valve-disk a. The pulling-rope proper m is also attached to the arm 7 so that this latter may be turned downwards by means of said rope m hen doing this,

the pull is transmitted by the piece of rope m to the valve-disk; the valve is being opened. It is kept open because the freeend of the arm 7 cngages'the hook 4 which is shoved upon the arm-end by the spring 5, thus locking the arnr7 and keeping thevalve The rope m) open. The springs c and Z are correspondingly expanded and the former of them and 4; the leverp7 is double-armed, and the spring I is a pressure-springwhich,nor-

mally, presses the free end of the lever 7' upon the step 3 of the locking-lever 1. The

spring Z isstronger than the spring 0. Besides the rope m which is attached tothe outer arm of the lever f, another rope m is attached .to the shorter (upper) arm of the lever 1. To open the valve, the rope m is pulled, when the lever 1 will be turned, the step 3 will be moved to the left, the lever 7 will be turned by the spring Z" until its free end rests upon the step 4, and thevalve-disk will be moved off its seat by means of the piece of rope m. I V

In order to close the valve, the lever 7 is turned into its initial position by means of the rope m The spring Z" is, consequently, compressed; the spring 0 draws the valve- (lisk against its seat, and as soon as the tree end of the lever 7 arrives over the step 3,.the

spring 5moves also the lockingdcvcr 1 back into its former position (Figure In the form ofconstruction shown in Fig. 6. opening and closing the valve is effected by the same rope, viz. m, which is attached to a particular kind of'pawl 10 10 forming an inverted V. The rope is attached to the part 10, and the part 10' forms the pawl proper which co-operates with angularly bent arms 11. of which there are tour. They are firmly connected with a double-cam 12 which is arranged at an angle of 45 with re-- spect to said arms 11. There are the lock ing-lever 1 with the lug 3 and the hook 4; the spring and the lever or arm 7: and the cooperation of these parts is the same as in Fig ure 4. The cams 12 cooperate with the lower end of the lever 1; they are operated by the action of the pawl 10 upon the arms 11, and the pawl is operated by the pull exerted upon the rope m The pawl 10 10 is suspended from an arm 13 which is hinged at 8 to the bracket 9 and is under. the pull of a spring 14.

The pawl 10 10' and the arm 13 are connected with each other by a bolt 15 which projects laterally so as to be able to push .upon the arm 7 and turn it, viz. in' downward direction. When the rope is pulled. first the pawl 10 10 is drawn down and the arm 13 is downwardlyturned; at the same time the pawl proper 10 turns the cams 12 by the mediation of one of the arms 11, and the spring 5 can move the locking-lever 1 as soon as the free end of the lever 7 arrives opposite to the hook 4. When the bolt 15 of the downwardly moving arm 13 pushes upon the arm 7 (which is still drawn by the spring Z against the lug 3), then also this arm is moved downwards until it arrives opposite to the hook 4 over the lever 7 and looks it in its present position. At the same time the valve is being opened by the mediation of the piece of rope m. It remains open because the arm 7 is now looked, as just described.

To close the valve, another pull is exerted upon the rope m The result is that another of the arms 11 is acted on by the pawl 10' and that the next cam 12 (both cams standing at present vertical in consequence of the former actuation) acts upon or against the locking-lever 1, moving this latter to the left and disengaging the arm 7' from the hook 4. Consequently the spring Z pulls the arm 7 upwards and the spring 0 moves the valve-disk a upwards and closes the valve.

Having now described my invention, what I desire to secure by a patent of the United States is:

1. A deflatingand safety-valve for gasfilled balloons, comprising in combination, a valve-seat; a valve-disk; a rigid member aflixed in the central part of said disk and extending in the direction towards the seatplane; a lever supported upon said valveseat and having its free end connected with said central member; a spring also connected with the said member and being so arranged as to be adapted to draw the said valve-disk against its seat; and means to hold said spring in proper working position.

2. A deflatingand safety-valve for gasfilled balloons, comprising, in combination, a valve-seat; a valve-disk; a rigid member aflixed in the central part of said disk and extending in the direction towards the seatplane; a lever supported upon said valveseat and having its free end connected with said central member; a spring also connected with the said member and being so arranged as to be adapted to draw the said valvedisk against its seat; means to hold said spring in proper working position;- another spring arranged contrarily to said first-mentioned spring outside of the valvedisk; means to hold said other spring in proper working position; a valve-opening valve-seat; a valve-disk; a rigid member af- I fixed in the central part of said disk and extending in the direction towards the seatplane; a lever supported upon said valveseat and having its free end connected with said central member; a spring also connected with the said member and being so arranged as to be adapted to draw the said valve-disk against its seat; means to hold said spring in proper working position; and means to lock the said valve-disk in open position, as set forth.

4. A deflatingand safety-valve for gasfilled balloons, comprising in combination, a valve-seat; a valve-disk; a rigid member afiixed in the central part of said disk and extending in the direction towards the seatplane; a lever supported upon said valveseat and having its free end connected with said central member; a spring also connected with said member and being so arranged as to be adapted to draw the said valve disk against its seat; means to hold said spring in proper working position; means to lock said valve-disk in open position, and means to releasethe locked valve-disk, said releasing-means being adapted to be actuated by a rope, substantially as described and shown.

5. A deflatingand safety-valve for gasfilled balloons, comprising, in combination; a valve-seat; a valve-disk; a rigid member aflixed in the central part of said disk and extending in the direction towards the seatplane; a lever supported upon said valveseat and having its free end connected with said central member; a spring also connected with said member and being so arranged as to be adapted to draw the said valve-disk against its seat; means to hold said spring in proper working position; means to lock said valve-disk in open position, and means to release the locked valve disk, said releasing-means being adapted to be actuated by a second rope, substantially as described and shown.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses. 1

KARL FRIEDRICH KAPPES. Witnesses:

HANS NOBLE, Fmrz GENTSOKE. 

